Manuscript leaf from Boethius, in Latin, produced in Italy

Text: From Boethius, in Latin

Script: Textualis Formata (Textus Quadratus)

The text from Boethius’s Consolatio Philosophiae, shows the end of Book 4 which is in Latin verse and the start of Book 5 which is in Latin prose. Book 5 starts with a large initial ‘D’ in purple-red touched in white penwork and enclosing a full-length portrait of God the Father as a bearded man enthroned holding Christ on the Cross, all on a blue ground heightened with white circles and stars.

The text is written in a single column of twenty-seven lines. The verse lines are rather shorter than the prose lines, but this has not deterred the scribe from abbreviating words in the verse section. This suggests that the purpose of abbreviation was not merely to conserve the amount of vellum used but to shorten the time spent in writing. There are a number of small interlinear glosses in a contemporary cursive hand.

Translation by Donor:

End of Book 4:

He [Hercules] subdued the haughty Centaurs. He removed his spoil from the fierce [Nemean] lion. Also, he pierced the [Stymphalian] birds with his sure arrows. He snatched the apples [of the Hesperides] from the watchful dragon, his left hand weighed down by their golden metal. He dragged Cerberus with a triple chain. He is said to have overcome their cruel master [Diomedes] and placed him before his fierce chariot-horses as fodder. He burned the Hydra’s poison and she perished. The river Achelous with disgraced expression plunged his ashamed face within his banks. He laid Antæus low on the sands of Libya. Cachus appeased the wrath of Evander. The bristly [Erymanthian] boar flecked with foam the shoulders which were to bear the weight of the earth. As his final labour he bore the heavens on his bent neck, and again earned heaven as the prize of his last labour. “Go now bravely where the lofty way of a mighty example leads. Why do you idly expose your backs? When the earth is conquered she [the earth] grants the stars.”

Start of Book 5:

She [Philosophy] had spoken and was turning the course of her speech to other matters which needed to be treated and explained. Then I said, “Your encouragement is correct and certainly most worthy of your authority. But I am learning by experience what you said just now about providence, that the question is closely connected to several others. For I ask whether you think chance exists at all and what it is.” Then she said, “I hasten to settle the debt of my promise and to open for you the way by which you may return to your homeland. But these things, even if they are most useful for knowledge, are in short an obstacle in the path of our principal subject. We must beware that, wearied by detours, you are unable to last out to tread the straight route.” “You certainly must not be afraid of that”, I said, “for it will be restful for me to recognise those things in which I have great delight. And likewise when every aspect of your argument has stood firm with undoubted reliability, let there be no dispute about what shall follow.” Then she said, “I will follow your practice.” and at the same time began to speak in the following way. “If anyone defines chance as an event produced by random movement and by no consequence of causes, I confirm that there is no such thing as chance. Apart from showing the meaning of the matter in hand, I consider it to be an empty word. For what place, if any, can be left for accident, when God holds everything together in order? For it is a true proposition that nothing can come out of nothing, which none of the ancients has ever contested, though they considered it not from the effective principle, but from the material subject. That is from nature, as if they have laid the foundation of all their arguments. But if anything were to arise from no causes, it will seem to have arisen from nothing. But if this cannot be, chance cannot be anything of this kind as we defined it shortly before. What therefore . . . . .”

Recto side:

1 Ille centauros domuit sup(er)bos .

2 Abstulit sevo spoliu(m) leoni .

3 Fixit et ce(r)teris volucres sagitis . [deletion of ‘er’

4 Poma cernenti rapuit draconi .

5 Aureo levam gravior metalo

6 Cerbaru(m) traxit triplici catena .

7 Victor im(m)item posuisse fertur

8 Pabulu(m) sevis d(omi)n(u)m quadrigis .

9 Hydria co(m)busto periit veneno .

10 Fronte turpatus achelous amnis

11 Ora demersit pudibu(n)da rippis .

12 Stravit antheu(m) libicis arenis .

13 Cachus evandri satiavit iras .

14 Quosq(ue) co(m)presus foret altus orbis

15 Setiger spumis humeros notavit .

16 Ultimus celu(m) labor inreflexo

17 Sustulit colo preciumq(ue) rursus

18 Ultimi celu(m) meruit laboris .

19 Ite nu(n)c fortes ubi celsa magni

20 Ducit exempli via cur inhertes

21 Terga nudatis sup(er)ata tellus . sidera donat . [End of Book 4

22 D [Start of Book 5

23 Ixerat or(ati)onis cursu(m) ad allia

24 queda(m) tractanda atq(ue) expe-

25 dienda vertebat . Tum ego

26 recta quide(m) inqua(m) exorta-

27 tio tuaque p(ro)rsus auctoritate

Verso side:

1 dignissima . Sed q(uod) tu dudu(m) de p(ro)videntia questio-

2 nem plurib(us) alliis i(m)plicitam esse dixisti re experior .

3 Quero eni(m) an e(ss)e aliq(ui)d om(n)ino (et) q(ui)d nam esse casu(m)

4 arbitrare . Tu(m) illa festino inq(ui)t debitu(m) p(ro)missionis .

5 absolvere viamq(ue) tibi qua patriam revhearis ap(er)ire . [reveharis !

6 Hec aute(m) (et)si p(er)utilia cognitu tame(n) a p(ro)positi n(ost)ri tra-

7 mite paulisp(er) adv(er)sa su(n)t . Verendu(m)q(ue) est ne deviis fa-

8 tigatus ad mentiendu(m) rectu(m) iter sufficere no(n) pos-

9 sis . Ne id inqua(m) p(ro)rsus vereare . Nam quietis michi

10 fuerit loco ea quib(us) maxime delector agnoscere . Sy-

11 mul cu(m) om(n)e disputationis tue latus indubitata

12 fide co(n)st[it]erit nichil de seque(n)tib(us) ambigatur . Tum [inserted ‘i’ and ‘t’

13 illa morem i(n)quit geram tibi symulq(ue) sic exorsa

14 est . Siquide(m) inq(ui)t aliquis eventu(m) temerario mo-

15 tu nullaq(ue) causaru(m) conexione p(ro)ductu(m) casu(m) esse

16 diffiniat . Nichil om(n)ino ca[s]u(m) esse co(n)firmo . Et pre- [deleted ‘ii’ and

[inserted ‘s’

17 ter subiecte rei significatione(m) inanem p(ro)rsus vocem

18 esse decerno . Quis eni(m) cohercente deo in ordine(m)

19 cu(n)cta locus esse ullus temeritati reliquus potest .

20 Nam nichil ex nichilo exsistere vera se(n)tentia est .

21 cui nemo unqua(m) veteru(m) refragatus est . Qua(m)q(uam)

22 illi id no(n) de operante pri(n)cipio sed de materiali sub-

23 iecto . Hoc e(st) om(n)ium de natura rationu(m) quasi q(uo)ddam

24 iecerint fu(n)damentum . Ad si nullis ex cau(s)is aliquid

25 oriatur id de nichilo ortu(m) esse videbitur . Q(uo)dsi hoc

26 fieri nequit ne casu(m) quide(m) huius modi e(ss)e possible

27 est qualem paulo ante diffiniuimus . Quid igitur . . .

Notes:

A Letters: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u/v,x,y,A,C,D,E,F,H,I,N,O,P,Q,S,T,U/V.

Versal: D.

B Alternative forms of ‘d’(2), ‘i’(2), ‘m’(2), ‘r’(2) and ‘s’(2).

Note sideways ‘m’, e.g. in ‘quoddam’ (verso, line 23).

C Fusion of letters ‘bo’, ‘do’, ‘pe’ and ‘po’.

D Elision of letters ‘ci’, ‘cr’, ‘gi’, ‘gr’, ‘ti’, ‘tr’ and ‘xi’.

E Bifurcation of ascenders of the letters ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘h’ and ‘l’, and descenders of the

letters ‘p’and ‘q’.

F Ligature of ‘st’, e.g. in ‘combusto’ (recto, line 9).

G Use of Tironian ‘et’ symbol (verso, line 3).

H Abbreviation of ‘Quosque’ (recto, line 14).

I Abbreviation of ‘quod’ (verso, line 1).

J Abbreviation of ‘pluribus’ (verso, line 2).

K Abbreviation of ‘esse’ (verso, line 3).

L Abbreviation of ‘promissionis’ (verso, line 4).

M In ‘casum’ note the manner of deletion of the letters ‘ii’ and the weak insertion of

the letter ‘s’ (verso, line 16), the deleted ‘i’ in ‘casum’ (verso, line 3), and the deleted

‘i’ in ‘propositi’ (verso, line 6).

N In ‘certis’ (recto, line 3) the letters ‘er’ have been deleted by a vertical line through

each letter and a dot beneath each letter. The scribe may have been thinking of ‘et

cetera’ and immediately realised that this was wrong.

O The scribe has missed letters from some words, and these have been added later,

e.g. an ‘l’ in ‘nullis’ and an ‘s’ in ‘causis’ (verso, line 24).

P Sometimes the writing strokes of two adjacent letters are compounded to reduce the

number of strokes, e.g. in ‘periit’ (recto, line 9) the upper part of the bowl of ‘p’ and

the lower part of the curve of ‘e’ is written as a single stroke.